Gov. Scott dispatches DJJ chief to meet Capitol protesters

Gov. Rick Scott met Monday with his juvenile justice secretary, Wansley Walters, and directed her to meet with a group of student protesters who occupy part of the state Capitol for a sixth straight day in opposition to Florida's self-defense law.

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Scott met with Walters at DJJ's Tallahassee offices on Monday morning and they emerged to speak to reporters afterward in a hastily-called media availability.

Scott met with the protesters last Thursday night in his office and rejected their request that he call a special legislative session to repeal the self-defense law, known as "stand your ground." The law is widely perceived to be at the heart of George Zimmerman's decisions on the night that he fatally shot an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, during an encounter in Sanford in February 2012. Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder.

"I believe in our stand your ground and our self-defense laws in our state," Scott said. "But I appreciate the fact that they expressed their concerns." The governor reiterated his suggestion that the young protesters should focus their concerns on state legislators who passed the self-defense law in 2005.

Walters is a former Miami-Dade child welfare official who was one of Scott's first agency head choices when he took office in January 2011. "More than anything, I just want to listen to them, hear their specific concerns, see what we can do to address them, answer them, follow up on them," Walters said.

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